Gilles de Rais (September 1405-26 October 1440) was a Marshal of France during the Hundred Years' War. In 1440, he was executed for being a serial killer of children.
Biography[]
Gilles de Rais was born in Champtoce-sur-Loire, Anjou, France in 1405, and he was a member of the House of Montmorency. He grew up under the tutelage of his maternal grandfather and increased his fortune by marriage, and he was admitted to the French court after earning the favor of Duke John V of Brittany. From 1427 to 1435, he served as a commander in the French Royal Army, and he fought alongside Joan of Arc against the English and their Burgundian allies during the Hundred Years' War, for which he was appointed Marshal of France. In 1435, he retired from military life, wasted his money on a theatrical composition, dabbled in the occult, and murdered several children until 1440. That year, the parents of the missing children and Rais' own confederates testified against him, and he was hanged at Nantes on 26 October 1440.